Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Lahore campus students Tuesday (today) continue to protest on second-day at the Canal Road against the administration of the university’s main campus, Multan, for not awarding them degrees.

They chanted slogans and announced continuing their protest the whole night despite the fact some senior officials of Higher Education Department (HED), Punjab had a detailed meeting with them.

The protesters, however, announced to continue the demonstration until the fulfilment of their six demands.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Lahore campus was established under public-private partnership and later a controversy had surfaced vis-à-vis legality of the campus. After approval from the BZU Multan syndicate, the HED had allowed the sub-campus one-time relaxation until the completion of ongoing classes and the sub-campus was not allowed to offer new admissions this session. Secretary HED Capt (r) Nasim Nawaz talking to The News said the students had been assured that the issue had been resolved.

He said their demand that the Vice-Chancellor of BZU should come and assure them of the same could not be met now.

“I have talked to the Vice- Chancellor and he will be arriving on Wednesday (today)”, the secretary added. The students continued their protest until the filing of this report. The demo caused severe problems to commuters.

Scholarships: Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan said that scholarships are being awarded to brilliant students from low-income background under Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF).

According to a handout speaking at a ceremony hosted by Forman Christian College University to acknowledge the monetary support provided by PEEF to FCCU’s students, he said as per vision of Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif outstanding students from Balochistan, KPK, Sindh, AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA were also getting educational scholarships through PEEF.

Since the inception of this programme, PEEF had awarded more than Rs40 million in scholarships to approximately 300 FCCU students, he added. PEEF CEO Dr Kamran Shams, PEEF Vice Chairman Dr Amjad Saqib, FCCU Vice Rector Dr Joseph Jones, Registrar Dr Hamid Saeed, members of the faculty, staff and students were also present at the occasion. Later Rana Mashhood said Education UK exhibition was an excellent opportunity for Pakistani students to get direct information about higher education at UK institutions. He said this visiting Education UK exhibition here on Tuesday.